Assassin's Creed IV Sails

October 29th marked the release of the newest installment into the Assassin’s Creed franchise: Assassin’s Creed IV. Assassin’s Creed IV (AC4) stars Edward Kenway, grandfather to Connor Kenway, the protagonist of AC3. You play as Edward during "The Golden Age of Piracy," with Blackbeard and the sort, as you try to make a living being a pirate.

The story is as follows: Edward becomes a privateer to provide for himself and his wife; she leaves him; he leaves for the Caribbean and becomes one of the founders of Nassau. Nassau becomes a pirate headquarters created by Edward Kenway, Benjamin Hornigold, Edward Thatch (Blackbeard), and James Kidd. As time goes on, Nassau starts to fall apart, with tensions rising between the founders and disease killing the inhabitants; all the while Edward is still trying to get rich. This is as basic as the plot goes, but the story of the game is very interesting and immersive, revealing a lot about how pirates actually behaved.

The gameplay is really where the game shines, as it has two different forms. The first of these forms is on land, where the usual Assassin’s Creed rules apply, with an upgraded (and easier to manage) weapon system. The second isn’t on land, but at sea. As the player, you pilot your ship, the Jackdaw, across the Caribbean, where you can overtake other ships, dive at ship wrecks, and discover new locations. You can also overtake naval forts so you can, theoretically, rule the seas. Both sets of gameplay are fluid, and go together perfectly. When you overtake ships, you must engage in a naval battle with them. When they get to a low enough health, you must board the ship and take it over.

There are a few different options for what you can do with a ship after you board it. You can either repair your ship, the Jackdaw, send the ship to Kenway’s Fleet (a feature that was a bit confusing to me, so I’m leaving it out of this review), or lower your wanted level. Lowering your wanted level is very crucial, as other ships called “hunters” will start hunting you down (as the name implies). The higher your wanted level, the more hunters will start tracking you down.

Although this is one of my new favorite games, it does come with a fair share of downfalls. This includes repetitive missions, glitches, frustrating stealth, very sensitive enemies (detecting you easier), and very angering boat climbing. Now, they do offer many different solutions to the stealth and enemies, with frequent hiding areas in every main mission area. I can’t speak about the multiplayer, i.e. whether it is bad or good, as I have not played it yet.

But even with all the previously stated downfalls, this is still a great game that should be seen as an improvement from the previous installment of AC3. Most AC fans should enjoy the game, if not for the story, for the gameplay. Very fun, very fast-paced; this game is one of my favorites. I can’t wait to see what developer Ubisoft will do with the next installment.

-Kevin Brown